pronunciation with the following
_letters_: as, 'F=all, b=ale, m=o=od, h=o=use, f=eature.'

"A _syllable_ is short, when the accent is on the consonant; _which_
occasions the vowel to be quickly joined to the succeeding _letter_: as,
'~ant, b=onn~et, h=ung~er.'

"A long syllable generally requires double the time of a short one _in
pronouncing it_: thus, 'M=ate' and 'N=ote' should be pronounced as slowly
again as 'M~at' and 'N~ot.'"--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 239; 12mo, 192;
18mo, 57; _Alger's_, 72; _D. C. Allen's_, 86; _Bacon's_, 52; _Comly's_,
168; _Cooper's_, 176; _Cutler's_, 165; _Davenport's_, 121; _Felton's_, 134;
_Frost's El._, 50; _Fisk's_, 32; _Maltby's_, 115; _Parker and Fox's_, iii,
47; _Pond's_, 198; _S. Putnam's_, 96; _R. C. Smith's_, 187; _Rev. T.
Smith's_, 68.

Here we see a revival and an abundant propagation of Sheridan's erroneous
doctrine, that our accent produces both short quantity and long, according
to its seat; and since none of all these grammars, but the first two of
Murray's, give any _other_ rules for the discrimination of quantities, we
must infer, that these were judged sufficient. Now, of all the principles
on which any have ever pretended to determine the quantity of syllables,
none, so far as I know, are more defective or fallacious than these. They
are liable to more objections than it is worth while to specify. Suffice it
to observe, that they divide certain accented syllables into long and
short, and say nothing of the unaccented; whereas it is plain, and
acknowledged even by Murray and Sheridan themselves, that in "_ant, bonnet,
hunger_" and the like, the unaccented syllables are the _only short ones_:
the rest can be, and here are, lengthened.[497]

OBS. 16.--The foregoing principles, differently expressed, and perchance in
some instances more fitly, are found in many other grammars, and in some of
the very latest; but they are everywhere a _mere dead letter_, a record
which, if it is not always untrue, is seldom understood, and never applied
in any way to practice. The following are examples:

(1.) "In a long syllable, the vowel is accented; in a short syllable [,]
the consonant; as [,] _r=oll, p=oll; t~op, c~ut_."--_Rev. W. Allen's
Gram._, p. 222. (2.) "A syllable _or word_ is long, when the accent is on
the vowel: as n=o, l=ine, l=a, m=e; and short, when on the consonant: as
n~ot, l~in, L~atin, m~et."--_S. Barrett's Grammar, ("Principles of
Language,")_ p. 112.

(3.) "A syl